The Friday High Five

Carefree days, dragon nights, and enabling the means of my own destruction

Wizards of the Coast

Every Friday I share 5 things I enjoyed this week. Also, high fives are inherently cool, and I think we can all agree Friday is the bestest day. Hence the Friday High Five. 🙏🏻

One of my favorite summer moves is to take off random days in the middle of a random week just because. There’s a sweetness in doing whatever you want while the rest of the world is busy working that just never gets old.

I took off this past Tuesday and Wednesday. What did I do? Well, not much actually. Which was the point! I read. I played video games. I wrote. I dabbled with D&D things. I watched an embarrassing amount of TV. Basically I indulged in whatever sounded good. And it was super good.

I briefly considered going to see Deadpool and Wolverine but couldn’t summon the enthusiasm. Which is a good summary of where I’m at with the MCU these days.

You can take time off and do the things I just mentioned any time of year, but doing it during the summer strikes me as extra special. Maybe because I can sit on the porch, with a Slurpee in one hand and a book in the other. Or maybe it’s just me trying to harness the magic I remember from my youth, when summer seemed an endless period of freedom and play.

I don’t know how your calendar works, but according to mine, summer is almost over. If you haven’t already, spend some time doing leisurely things for leisure’s sake. There’s absolutely no downside.

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House of the Dragon

HBO

Would it be too on the nose to say this show is fire?

I mentioned last week that we’d fallen behind on House of the Dragon, for reasons that had nothing to do with the show and everything to do with life. But I recently came into possession of a few uninterrupted days of leisure (see: above) and used that time judiciously.

We are now fully caught-up.

There is so much I love about this Game of Thrones spin-off. Part of it is the simple joy of being back. Game of Thrones—as both a setting and a genre itself—remains undefeated in its portrayal of feudal life. It feels like lived history in all its ugly grayness. I really enjoy that the feud is headed by women who both fight against naked misogyny to keep their place at the table, while also struggling to rein-in the traditional male response to difficulties (that being, punch it in the face).

Queen Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) is easily the show’s MVP. I’ve been waiting all season for her to assert herself. It’s finally happening, and it’s glorious. The moment she put her stodgy advisors into their place—one who scoffed at her for being the “gentler” sex and thus knowing nothing of war, the other who chased her down to second-guess and mansplain—was glorious.

The dragons are menacing and terrifying in a way Dany’s never really were. Characters refer to the dragons as gods, which feels blasphemous but also accurate.

It’s obvious there will be no winners here, only a loser ruling over ashes. That’s part of the Game of Thrones aesthetic. To quote the OG: “If you think this has a happy ending, you haven't been paying attention.” And, too, we know the future. Game of Thrones begins with the Targaryens already defeated, largely because they had no dragons. They were a shadow of a memory of this time.

This show will be a bridge between Valyria of old and the magic-less world of Game of Thrones. Even knowing what’s coming, it’s going to be a painful crossing.

Dungeons & Dragons

Sticking with the dragon theme…

I know I talk about D&D quite a bit in this column. D&D would be an easy inclusion in every High 5 because I play almost every week. But I try not to talk about it often for novelties’ sake. Also because most people don’t recognize how awesome it is. Some of you may even think it’s nerdy. Which it is! Awesomely nerdy.

This past Monday we had our first in-person session in about a month. Our heroes are presently traversing the underground hideout of a cult of dragon worshippers. We are very cognizant there is a giant dragon-shaped shoe waiting to drop and squash our very squishy heads, so we’re skulking about very stealthily.

Which was naturally our undoing.

We decided to use Speak With the Dead to interrogate the recently-deceased head honcho we’d killed last session.¹ That spell allows you to ask 5 questions, which therefore requires intentionality. We briefly considered asking where the big bad dragon was, but decided we’d find him soon enough. It’s not like dragons are easy to hide. So instead we asked a lame question I can’t even remember now—something like, “what time does the dragon take his afternoon tea?”—which got us nowhere useful. (“He likes coffee, actually.”)

I then got a clever idea, and suggested the sorcerer use Disguise Self to appear as the head honcho. And then I tossed the body into the convenient pond nearby, which turned out to be the dragon’s bedroom.

The dragon came bursting out of the water, all frothy and angry, and there the session ended. We’re all at roughly half health and are in no shape to fight this dragon. The post-game text thread was somber to say the least. That the DM openly mentioned the dreaded TPK (total party kill) didn’t help the vibe. Read the room, Chad.²

In the last two in-person sessions, I’ve tried to do the sensible thing and it’s come back to bite me in the butt both times. As former president George W. Bush once said, “Fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again.”

Teaching my young apprentice how to golf

I recently started teaching my son how to golf. It’s a bit like the blind leading the blind. I took lessons over 20 years ago and have forgotten most of what I learned. I only play 2-3 times a year and have no idea what my handicap is. Here’s what I do know: In a foursome, I tend to have the highest score.

Golf is a game in which a low score is the objective.

Next to my son, I’m basically pre-meltdown Tiger Woods. Which isn’t a commentary on his ability so much as an observation of our relative skill levels. Just learning to hit a golf ball takes time and lots of practice, to say nothing of hitting it accurately (where I struggle). But he’s on the path now.

Looking forward to the day when he emerges from the shadows, golf club in hand, talking about circles being complete.

The Bear

Shout out to Stevie (John Mulaney), the only bit of sanity in this asylum. Image: FX

We were blazing through season 2—and loving it—until we hit a major pothole: The Christmas flashback episode. Sheesh, what a mess.

On one hand, I appreciate the glimpse into the past, specifically as it relates to Carmy and Michael. They have a really beautiful moment I’m glad I got to see. Unfortunately, that’s only like 5% of this excruciating hour-long episode. The rest is ugly and loud and so, so angry. I get that the holidays tend to bring out the worst in people but oy vey. These people put the mess in hot mess.

The Bear excels at making the chaos of a kitchen feel like a shared experience, but they overdid this Christmas turkey. We ended up watching the episode across 2 days because the other route led only to madness. It’s great drama, incredibly written and acted, but it’s also like 50% too much.

Thankfully it’s now over, and we can return to the show’s regularly-scheduled bedlam.

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That’s it for this edition of the High 5. What are you digging at the moment? Drop a comment and let me know!

1. The Speak With the Dead scene in the Chris Pine D&D movie is hilarious and also the most accurate representation of what playing D&D actually looks like.

2. My friend Chad is an avid reader of the newsletter, so this was 100% intended for him.